In less than one week, Major League Baseball ends its regular season and the statistics will be officially entered into the record books. Monday morning armchair pitchers and catchers will begin to debate the playoffs, and question the strategies and moves of each manager. Meanwhile the St. Louis Cardinals, undeniably baseball’s best team, appear poised to annihilate their opponents and win the 2004 World Series.
And what’s at stake for the Cardinals? Nothing more than a few bragging rights, a shiny trophy, a ring and some new million dollar contracts.
Elsewhere in the United States, another season is drawing to a close and none too soon. But before this particular season can be viewed as history, the issues that surround this game (euphemistically referred to as an election), must first be openly debated.
The players or debaters consist of only four men: President George Bush and his opponent Sen. John Kerry, and Vice President Dick Cheney and his opponent Sen. John Edwards.
And what’s a stake here? If you need to be apprised of this, you’ve either had your head stuck in the sand, been asleep since 9/11 or you’re a complete raving lunatic in need of immediate attention.
While most people in this country will find the World Series much more exciting and entertaining, it is imperative and the civic duty of every American to watch the debates as well as being aware of the results and its consequences.
The presidential and vice presidential debates are two of the greatest traditions in America, and should be viewed with utmost interest and concern.
George Bernard Shaw claimed that “The way to get at the merits of a case is not to listen to the fool who imagines himself impartial, but to get it argued with reckless bias for and against.”
Whether or not the debates will be filled with “reckless bias” or as flat as grandma’s biscuits remains to be seen.
Since the first televised presidential debate of 1960 between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, this nation has become increasingly more aware of the candidates and their attitudes regarding the issues by watching the debates.
Let’s not forget that in 1960 those who used the medium of radio and listened to the debates, gave the edge to Nixon while those who watched it on television gave the edge to Kennedy.
Television clearly showed Nixon with a two o’clock facial shadow and sweating excessively while Kennedy was viewed as just the opposite. History tells us that this is one of key reasons Kennedy won the election.
This year’s debates could well decide who will occupy the White House in 2005 and the issues include the war on terrorism, the economy, the borders, health care, taxes, Social Security, Iraq, Afghanistan and bin Laden, past senatorial voting records and the current state of the nation.
The issues have nothing to do with an ancient war in Vietnam or some National Guard service in Texas. Hopefully, the moderators will not even broach this subject. Of course if Kerry insists on answering each question with his trademark reply, “When I was in Vietnam,” then all bets are off and any question is fair game.
It will be equally as interesting to see just how tough the moderators are prepared to be, given the fact that they’ve been somewhat restrained in their questioning in past debates.
The moderators picked for the debates, with the exception of Bob Schieffer, are not Howard K. Smith, and this is unfortunate.
While the questioning needs to be fair and tough, the answers must come from the heart and not from some ill prepared batch of generic answers cooked up by a bunch of dialogue coaches in the green room.
Hey, if the guy goes out there and says what’s on his mind, screws up a little, then that’s OK. But it he goes out there and says what he thinks we want to hear, he’s in big trouble come Nov. 2. Just in case, I believe we should all be paying close attention to see which John Kerry shows up.
While our debaters may think of politics as some sort of gamesmanship, the stakes are extremely critical this election.
The citizens of the United States are well aware that they have some real enemies out there who don’t scare easily and the next president needs to have a policy that confronts the real issues. Gamesmanship is over. The war on terrorism is not.
So, do we really need the debates, or should we just have an election and get on with our lives? We need not forget that these debates and all debates are the instruments of the democratic society. The United States is a free society where the majority rules in an air of free speech.
Woodrow Wilson had the answer to the question of debating. “It is always dangerous for a man to have the floor by himself.”
The first televised debate is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 30, at 9 p.m., EST, on Fox. The host and moderator will be Jim Leher, Anchor and Executive Editor of The NewsHour on PBS.
I suggest that each of us pull up a chair, and have a seat. The fate of the nation is at hand.

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